


Falling from the Clouds

by liquorcanini



Category: Karanduun (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/M, hnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:28:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27279520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquorcanini/pseuds/liquorcanini
Summary: Martinez and Inday are assigned a scouting mission.
Relationships: Martinez x Inday
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Falling from the Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> written to keshi's like i need u and gnash's ilusm

_ Tao ka ba? _

The words echoed. Martinez flew, the feathers on his wingarms bristling against the chilly wind of the setting sun. 

_ Ikaw, tao ka ba?  _

Martinez smirked. He was proud of that. After all that time  _ dead,  _ he still had it in him. He glided down from the clouds and saw her leaning against the steel railings overlooking a cathedral. 

_ Her.  _ Her. Inday.

_ Matagal nang hindi.  _ Inday had said, and Martinez couldn’t stop a twisting in his chest. He plummeted and landed silently behind her. “Oy.”

Inday didn’t move. If she heard Martinez, she didn’t betray any signs. “Ah, so we’re doing silence now?”

Inday exhaled. “They’re moving within,” she said. “You’re making too much noise.”

“We’re a street away,” he said, spreading his arms. “They won’t hear us.”

Inday didn’t move again. Martinez smiled, sighed, and combed back his hair with his fingers. “Hey, this is like, an overnight mission. We’re staking them out for the entirety of tonight. Loosen up.”

Inday still didn’t turn to the wakwak. “If we take our eyes off of them for even a second we might miss something,” she said. Then, shrugging, she continued: “I can ‘loosen up’ when it’s your turn.”

“Which is what time?”

“Midnight.”

Martinez blinked. “You’ve been there since this morning.”

Inday didn’t respond. 

“What, you’re going to stay there all the way until midnight?”

“I do my duty and I do it well.”

“By the diwata, girl!” Then, pushing his luck: “You know what, that’s pretty hot.”

When Inday didn’t speak anymore, Martinez walked over to the makeshift chair they’d made and sat, putting his feet up on the steel railings. He watched her as the sun dawned. He looked at her from the side, and so he could notice her side profile. Her face, always that nondescript mask. Her mouth in a thin line, her eyes half-lidded, as if always sleepy. Her hair tied up into a severe ponytail so that not a single strand of hair blocked her vision. 

_ From any angle…  _ he thought. “God you’re… pretty.” Inday still didn’t respond.

Martinez averted his gaze and mopped his face with his hands. He yawned. He did a couple of things to pass the time, such as tell stories about when he was dead--there wasn’t a lot--and then even before that. 

With a sudden strange pit forming in his stomach he realized that he couldn’t remember too much from before he died, after he had told all the stories that he could remember. 

Was he different now? Was he still Martinez? Was Martinez even his real name?

He shook his thoughts off with a smile. He turned to Inday, who hadn't moved an inch. “Oy, you’re gonna get an ulcer there.”

She didn’t reply again. Martinez groaned. “Did you eat yet, even?”

“No,” she said. Her voice, however, was strong and rooted.

“All right. I’ll get you some food. Sisig?”

She didn’t reply. “I’ll take that as a yes, babe.” And he leapt off of the roof and down to a nearby kainan. He didn’t even realize that it had turned deep into the night already. Just a few more hours until midnight. He’d be happy to take off some load from Inday.

He returned to the roof already devising some kind of word trick to get her to kiss him  _ before  _ he handed her the sisig. However when he got there, wings flapping silently against the night, he saw Inday, still unmoving and still leaning against the silver railings.

However her half-lidded, unimpressed eyes had closed. Her shoulders slumped forward, most of her weight now against the silver railing.

Martinez blinked. He put the sisig on top of the cardboard box that they had turned into a makeshift table and walked up to her. Tender in his caress, he took her from the scouting spot-- _ god she’s cold-- _ and moved her away from the railing, and he carried into his arms. His skin tingled when it met hers. He knelt down and placed her down onto the banig. For a quick moment, he wondered if she could feel him, if she knew that she was carried from her vantage point and made to rest on the banig. If she did, she betrayed no signs of knowing.

A single strand of hair fell upon her face. With his breath hot--a first in a long time--he brushed the strand off softly, making sure not to wake her.

_ Kiss muna. _

Her lips were slightly parted. He could kiss her right now, if he wanted.

He stood up and walked over to the vantage point. The night wind brought with it the spirit of cold, and Martinez’ earlier regret for bringing a jacket turned into appreciation as he slipped it on. He watched the inside of the cathedral and noticed that the men and women within, wearing exquisitely expensive black barong tagalogs, were already moving out. Some of them began boarding their expensive abyssal kalesas.

Then, one of them turned to look exactly into Martinez’ eyes.

Martinez blinked. He felt a chill run up his spine. He turned and saw a huge kapre reaching down to grab him, its lungs expelling horrible choking fumes of darkness.

Martinez cursed and moved. Before he could escape, the hands were upon him. “Shit.” He writhed, trying to kick and punch and get off, but the kapre’s hands only tightened and strengthened and eventually--

\--Inday was there, grabbing the kapre by the hips and then  _ suplexing  _ it. Martinez flew out of his grasp. “Wow,” Martinez said as he recovered his bearings and brandished his wingarms, sharper than swords. “Naalimpungatan?”

“You should’ve just woken me up.”

“But you’re so pretty when you’re asleep.”

“So I guess you’re saying I’m not pretty when I’m awake.”

“You’re beautiful when you’re awake.”

Inday almost said something, but Martinez heard Inday gulp a sharp intake of air and the kapre grabbed her leg and threw her straight to the night sky. “Inday!”

With his blade wings, he strode forward and cut the kapre’s head off completely. Then, he used the kapre as a springboard to leap into the sky and used his wings to fly even further up. Up and up until he caught Inday, who was too taken by surprise to move her own wings.

“Huli ka, hehe,” and they tumbled in the air until Martinez managed to catch the wind, and they rose up instead. Up and up until they were at the stage of the clouds, beholden by the moon. You’re mine.”

“Shut up,” she said, but her head was against her chest.

“Oy oy, it’s okay. I got you. You’re safe. Everything will be okay.”

Inday was shaking. Martinez began stroking her hair, and Inday stopped. Most likely because Inday noticed that she was shaking. “You’re right. Naalimpungatan nga.”

Martinez smiled. “O, it feels like you’re hugging me a bit too tight. Ano? Type mo na ako?”

Inday looked up and kissed him on the lips. 

Martinez fell.

Literally, the two of them plummeted down, down, down, until Martinez--out of pure instinct, of course--managed to catch another wind, and used that to land both of them safely on another roof. They slid down to the floor, with Martinez bearing the brunt of the landing.

Inday sighed once they were on the ground. She rose, and her wings were out. “There. That should shut you up for like, three months.”

Martinez grinned a lopsided grin. “So may redo ulit? In three months?”

“We should report back to Duran.”

And she began walking to the edge of the roof, presumably to take flight once again.

  
Watching her Martinez felt like he wanted to stand and grasp her again, pull her to his chest, stroke her head, tell her everything will be okay. He could tell she needed it.

_ Tao ka ba?  _ he was asked.

_ Oo. Habang kasama kita, I have never felt more human.  _ But he didn’t say that. Like a winded music box forever closed.

He stood and followed her back to Kampanaryo.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> huhu


End file.
